Walking in the Sky
by JackieStarSister
Summary: A canon-compliant short story cycle. Chapter 1: Luke asks Owen and Beru about the parents and grandparents he never knew. Chapter 2: Leia learns to use the Force. Chapter 3: Ben wrestles with the disparate legacies he carries.
1. Luke's Family Tree

**Author's Note:** This is my first time writing about _Star Wars_. I'm a moderate fan. This piece is a birthday gift to my uncle, who is a major fan. He requested the franchise, but left the characters up to me. I love minor characters and family dynamics, so I went with the Lars-Skywalker family. This is meant to be canon-compliant, so any inconsistencies are a mistake on my part; feel free to point them out in a review. Enjoy!

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 **Family Ties**

Growing up, Luke knew no living family besides Owen and Beru, who admitted that they were not even blood relatives. Beru said this was irrelevant; they were related through marriage, which she said was just as powerful; and they had loved Shmi, so they loved her grandson too.

Luke's blood grandmother was buried on the farm, and his step-grandfather next to her. Owen and Beru could tell him plenty about their lives and personalities. Luke didn't like hearing about Shmi's slave roots, but he admired Cliegg's integrity and kindness in buying Shmi's freedom.

He still had his father and grandmother's surname, Skywalker. Luke didn't mind being set apart from his aunt and uncle this way. To him, there was something magical about the name, something noble and adventurous. He imagined his ancestors walking in the sky among the ships, planets, stars, suns and moons. Luke wondered if he could do that too.

"What was my father like?" Luke asked every few years.

Uncle Owen always seemed hesitant, like he had to hold part of the answer back, and Luke did not know if he was unwilling or unable to say more than he did.

"I barely knew him. My father married his mother, and she told us what he was like as a child, but I only met him once."

He explained why the man had not been on Tatooine with the rest of the family: he was a pilot, and had to go to faraway planets. He did not know any details about Anakin's work or adventures, much to Luke's disappointment.

"He grew up a slave, and when he came back here he saw his mother die. I think, both times, he just wanted to leave this place. It had too many bad memories."

"What about my mother?" All Luke knew about her was that she had died in childbirth.

For a long time they simply said they did not know; but finally a day came when Owen ventured a guess. "When I met your father, he was traveling with a young woman. Padme was her name. I think she must have been your mother. But I know even less about her than about your father."

"She was a pleasant girl," Aunt Beru supplied. "From her manners, I think she was pretty well-off, but she didn't mind staying on a moisture farm; she wanted to learn all about it. Said she wished they could stay, but I don't think your father could bear that."

"Were they married?"

"I don't know. Your father and Padme didn't tell us what their relationship was."

Somehow Uncle Owen managed to slide out of these conversations while Aunt Beru placated Luke's imagination as much as she was able. Owen always became evasive after talking too long about his stepbrother.

Luke didn't know if Owen was naturally reserved around everyone, or just with him. Had he done something wrong? Did Owen not like the reminder of Anakin and Shmi? Did they see him as a burden? They had no children of their own, but Luke did not know if that was from lack of ability or lack of desire.

In his teen years resentment started to form in his heart, periodically rising and falling like Tatooine's twin suns. Owen and Luke had different interests and opposing goals. Owen depended on Luke to run the farm, but that tied the boy down when he wanted to walk in the sky. Luke knew he owed it to his adoptive parents to help them run the farm, but should he not be able to pursue his own happiness, as they had in their time?

As he laid their scorched bodies to rest, Luke realized that he had never thanked them properly for taking him in and raising him.

They were good, honest, hardworking people. They had not deserved this. It was one thing for his father to have died in a long-ago conflict. It was another for his home and family to be completely destroyed. He now knew that his father had been a knight, someone who willingly entered battles; Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were innocent and never wanted to enter into conflict with anyone. It was monstrous of the Empire to kill them.

He understood, then, what Obi-Wan had meant about injustice. _"The suffering of one man is the suffering of all. Distances are irrelevant to injustice. If not stopped soon enough, evil eventually reaches out to engulf all men, whether they have opposed it or ignored it."_ The murder of Owen and Beru Lars proved that it was so. Luke could not pretend injustice did not exist when it sought out his loved ones—yes, he had loved them, even as reserved and old-fashioned as they had been.

When he had done all he could for his family, Luke left the planet just as his father had. He went with Obi-Wan partly out of necessity—he had no other home or livelihood now—but also so he could honor his father's Jedi legacy and prevent more tragedies like the Lars family.


	2. Leia's Force Lessons

_Published January 18, 2018. Updated April 30, 2018._

Dedication: For Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds, in gratitude for all they gave their audiences.

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 **"Leia's Force Lessons"**

After learning she had the same power as her father and brother, Leia endeavored to learn more about the Force so she could use it. Unfortunately, she did not have as much time to do so, since she felt called to use her diplomatic experience to help calm the turbulent political situation that came with the end of the war.

Luke, on the other hand, had no experience in politics, and was free to pursue other goals and interests. Yoda had urged him to pass on what he had learned, so he made it his mission to revive the Jedi Order. He spent long periods away from his family and friends, searching for artifacts of Jedi culture.

When Luke and Leia were able to spend time together without anything of greater importance on their agenda, they dove into study, conversation, and experimentation. Luke shared the information he gathered and coached Leia through mental exercises.

On one occasion, they discussed and decided to test the ability to perceive a person's thoughts. Darth Vader and the Emperor Palpatine had both exhibited this ability and used it against Luke. It made the twins wonder if they could do so as well. Luke had witnessed and performed Jedi "mind tricks," so he reasoned telepathy must be similar.

Leia thought it strange that Vader had not been able to use the Force to learn the location of the rebels' base when she was his prisoner, and yet had perceived Luke's thoughts while fighting him on the second Death Star.

"He didn't know you were his daughter," Luke pointed out, "but somehow he knew I was his son. Maybe being aware of that connection somehow attuned him to my thoughts."

Leia wondered how her two encounters with Vader might have been different if they had been aware of their relationship. He might have been just as cruel—he cut off his own son's hand, after all. Luke had been right about him having goodness inside all along. Perhaps recognizing it in her might have made him turn sooner. They could never know, though, so she did not dwell on it.

In a great show of trust and intimacy, Luke and Leia took turns trying to read each other's minds. In this way they shared their memories of their lives before they met. Luke pictured the farm on Tatooine, their relatives by marriage and adoption, and his friends who had left as they came of age. Leia remembered her parents, the palace on Alderaan, and her initiation to the Rebellion. They both felt the bittersweetness of remembering happier times with people and places that were gone.

Luke proved to be right about Leia. Over time, through intermittent but intense effort, she learned to use the power within her. Though she did not make a habit of using the Force, she did so when it seemed called for.

When Ben used his burgeoning powers to move objects, she sometimes had to intervene, for his safety or for the safety of whatever he was manipulating. She did not like to use the Force in front of him, though, because it encouraged him to be reckless with it, and his power was even stronger than hers. She wished they could bond through their use of it, but she knew she was not knowledgeable enough to teach him how to control his powers. She believed he would benefit more from Luke's guidance than hers.

More often, her power in the Force manifested in ways she could not control, such as feeling the presence or emotions of people close to her.

She felt Ben and Luke's emotions on the night of the massacre at the Jedi school. Just as disturbing as the nature and intensity of those emotions was her inability to distinguish between the two individuals who experienced them. Feeling their fear, pain, anger, hatred, and grief residually made Leia feel afraid herself. She grieved without knowing why, until they heard the devastating news.

After that, using or feeling the Force was painful for Leia. In spite of this, she tried to find Luke and Ben by sensing them through the Force. She had sensed when Luke needed rescue on Bespin, but that had been involuntary, at a moment when both parties wanted and needed each other. Now, it seemed the two men had closed themselves off from her, not wanting to be found.

She remembered talking with Luke after he officially joined the Rebel Alliance. Han had left them with his reward money while Luke prepared to join the pilots in attacking the Death Star.

 _"He's got to follow his own path. No one can choose it for him."_

 _"I only wish Ben were here."_

Perhaps, like his father, he would return and help them when they did not expect it.

Leia thought whatever connection she and Ben had through the Force was gone, until he came into position to attack the _Raddus_. She sensed not only his presence but his thoughts: he knew she was there, and he knew that she knew he was on board, and it made him hesitate. They both thought of what he had done to Han a short while ago, and wondered if he had what it took to do the same to her.

It was the same question Leia had wondered, and Luke had tested, against Vader: did family ties matter to someone who regularly employed violence to achieve their goals?

Leia did not know who fired the shot that destroyed the bridge of the _Raddus_ , but she was ready for it. She inhaled before the destructive blow arrived, and held her breath as she entered the vacuum of outer space. Then she reached out, remembering her few precious training sessions with her brother. For a moment, she lived up to the literal meaning of her family name, Skywalker. It was not she who moved through space, but the Force that flowed through her, allowing her to pull herself back to the people who needed her.


	3. Ben's Legacies

_Published May 1, 2018_

" **Ben's Legacies"**

"Kid's gonna get in trouble one day. Every kid does, but with the blood of a scoundrel and a princess in his veins, his defiance will shake the stars." ~ Lando Calrissian in _Aftermath: Empire's End_ by Chuck Wendig

Han was not too keen on Leia's suggestion that they name their son after Obi-Wan Kenobi, or, as Luke called him, Ben.

Leia had grown up hearing Bail Organa and his friends and colleagues tell stories about General Kenobi's military exploits. She held a deep respect for him both before and after his death, even though she never actually met him.

Han had interacted with him for several hours, and, at the time, found nothing remarkable about him. In fact, he had scorned and ridiculed the old man. He only began to truly respect Obi-Wan when he sacrificed himself so they could escape the Death Star.

"He brought us together," Leia pointed. "You, me, and Luke. If he hadn't done that, I wouldn't be alive now, you and I never would have met, and the Empire might not have fallen. In a way, the New Republic and this baby owe their existence to him." Leia had placed her hope in him, and even though he did not personally fulfill that hope, he had convinced and enabled Luke and Han to do so.

"Oh … alright. But if we're naming the baby after him, it'll be Ben, not Obi-Wan."

"What's wrong with Obi-Wan?"

"Too old-fashioned. Ben is normal, respectable … and sounds kind of like Han."

For Leia, the name meant hope. For Han, it meant love. For Luke, it indicated wisdom.

Ben Amidala Skywalker Organa Solo was born on the day the Empire died. When he was very small, he thought the annual celebrations were for him. After he found out they were celebrating something else, his birthday always felt overshadowed by that of the New Republic. His mother had to choose between attending festivities for the New Republic and organizing a celebration for him.

Every now and then someone would anecdotally mention how Leia signed the Galactic Concordance when she was three hours into labor. For Leia and her friends and admirers, it was a sign of her selflessness, commitment, and determination to balance public service with her private life. For Ben, it was a mark of what came first in her life.

Practically every political or military official who met Ben said to him at some point, "You must be so proud." He was, but at the same time he resented it, and the expectations people seemed to have for him, bearing the legacies of Alderaan, the Rebellion, and the Jedi.

Ben did not hear the announcement when Ransolm Casterfo made it, but he soon learned of it from some of the other students, whose relatives had immediately thought of them and reached out to let them know they were training under and alongside descendants of Darth Vader.

At first, Ben did not believe a word of it. The whole thing was unthinkable. Even if Casterfo had some holorecording of Bail Organa, it could be a fabrication, perhaps made from actual audio recordings of his speeches.

Ben turned to his uncle to confirm how ridiculous the claim was. But then he saw the expression on Luke's face, a painful blend shame, sorrow, and what was probably supposed to be apology.

Ben had felt plenty of kinds of disorientation in different piloting situations, but no vertigo could compare to this. The revelation completely upended his understanding of light and darkness, good and evil, liberty and tyranny. Luke taught that everyone possessed light and darkness, and that brighter light cast darker shadows, but Ben had never known such extremes could exist within one family, let alone in a single person. His identity had been confusing and contradictory enough inheriting the legacies of smugglers, senators, and Jedi knights. Now he had to reckon with the legacy of a Sith too.

He remembered sensing his family's fear and apprehension when his powers caused problems during his childhood. It made sense, finally, and what he now understood angered him. They feared his power. They did not trust him to be able to control it, to use it for good. Part of him wanted to prove them wrong, but how could he do that in a practical sense? Even if he stayed on the straight and narrow path his entire life, would anything he did convince them that he was beyond the reach of darkness? In their eyes, and perhaps even more so in others' eyes, he would be guilty until proven innocent.

For the first time, Ben consciously dared to explore what had before been only passing thoughts. He began to wonder if the Dark Side was overestimated or underutilized.

He refused to speak to his parents or uncle about these matters, but he wanted to know more. His curiosity burned more than a broken kyber crystal. He needed to know how a Jedi Knight could turn into a Sith Lord.

Ben left the Temple without asking for permission, and Luke did not try to stop him. Perhaps he thought Ben needed time and space to sort out how he felt. Or perhaps he feared what Ben would do if someone attempted to stop him.

He visited Naboo to learn more about his maternal grandmother. He had not even known of her existence until he finally brought himself to listen to the full recording that Bail Organa had left for his adopted daughter. It revealed that Padme Amidala had been the secret wife of Anakin Skywalker and the biological mother of Luke and Leia.

Though the people of Naboo traditionally cremated their dead, Padme's body had been preserved in an impressive mausoleum. Ben was startled to learn how young she had been, only a few years older than he was now. According to the date cited by the memorial, she had died two days after the founding of the Galactic Empire, or what his parents and their allies called the fall of the Old Republic.

There were pictures of Padme, and even holorecordings featuring her speeches and ceremonies, ending with her funeral procession. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and Ben could clearly see the resemblance to Leia. If Padme had also been as kind historical accounts and testimonies claimed, it seemed no wonder that Anakin would fall for her.

He continued to travel, visiting planets and moons he had heard mentioned in his parents' stories, and trying to learn how much of what they had told him was actually true. He sought objective accounts of the events that his family had been involved with, either in cause or effect.

Ben had never been very interested in politics, but he began to listen more attentively to news about the Populists and Centrists, and found himself increasingly agreeing with the Centrists, many of whom wanted to try to emulate the Empire's system of organization. The Empire had always been a subject of derision in his family—his father used it as a standard for measuring his hatred for a particular thing. Now, he learned more and more about what the Empire had stood for, and became increasingly acclimated to, if not fully convinced of, the idea that "good" and "evil" were merely points of view.

He had lost faith in his parents and uncle, their ideals, and whatever integrity he had thought they possessed. He wanted a new faith, a new ideology, something to believe in. He started to look to Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, as someone he could learn from, but it was difficult to understand the dead man's actions, seemingly switching from one side to another and back again.

Ben eventually returned to the Temple, not having anywhere better to go, but it was not the same, could never be the same. He continued training, as much as Luke and the other students would allow him, but he could not take it as seriously, and they did not trust him, if they ever had to begin with.

The darkness called to him, more audibly than ever. He now saw that it had been calling him for a long time, for as long as he could remember, possibly even before that. He could now attribute that to Darth Vader's blood and powers in him. The difference was that now, he did not instinctively suppress the thoughts and impulses that Luke would have labeled Dark.

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 **Author's Note:** I added a few lines to Leia's chapter, pointing out a parallel to _A New Hope_. I wasn't sure whether to place this chapter before or after Leia's; what do you think?

 **Disclaimer:** Padme's mausoleum is from _Star Wars Galaxy Series 7_ trading card "Mourning for Padme." The anecdote about Leia signing the Accords while in labor is from _Aftermath: Empire's End_ by Chuck Wendig. Ransom Casterfo and the revelation of Leia's relation to Vader are from _Bloodline_ by Claudia Gray (which I highly recommend).


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